


In These Arms (Epilogue) - Final Part

by mrpicard



Series: Star Trek: TNG - In These Arms (Epilogue) [5]
Category: Star Trek: The Next Generation, Star Trek: The Next Generation (Movies)
Genre: F/F, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Family Fluff, Future, M/M, Snarky Q, Starfleet, Starfleet Academy, Starship Enterprise (Star Trek), Time Travel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-06
Updated: 2017-07-13
Packaged: 2018-11-28 11:58:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 3,223
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11417487
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mrpicard/pseuds/mrpicard
Summary: Picard gets an answer to a fundamental question.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This part is set about eight years after the previous one.
> 
> This is the final episode - it definitely feels strange to publish it, and I would like to thank everyone who read this story and left kudos and/or comments somewhere along the way. It took me five years to finish "In These Arms", and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

"Can I sit in that big room with all the cadets again today?"

Picard focused his gaze on his grandson, who was looking up at him expectantly. "Julien, I'm not sure I can persuade them again to let you sit in one of the interstellar relations classes..."

"But I was there last time you took me here!" the eight-year-old protested.

Picard sighed heavily. "I simply don't know if I'll be able to get permission..."

"But you're Captain Picard! They can't tell _you_ no!"

"You'd be surprised," Picard remarked dryly and looked at the huge Starfleet Academy building across the lawn in front of them. "Alright, I'll see wha-"

"Now hold it right there - don't you dare cross that lawn!" a cranky voice suddenly sounded from behind, and Picard - not believing his old ears - whirled around as fast as he still could to see a person who, by all logical means, could and should not be there and yet was.

"Boothby?!"

"What does it look like - the Federation President?" the old groundskeeper huffed and then looked at Julien. "And who might _you_ be?"

"My name is Julien Picard," the boy said proudly.

Boothby looked back at Picard. "Your grandson, huh?"

"Yes." Picard returned Boothby's stare. "I really don't believe this..."

"Don't believe what?" Boothby asked grumpily.

"That you're still here, _and_ still looking just like you did when I was a cadet."

"Are you insulting my age now?" Boothby complained. "You're as rude as ever!"

"My grandfather is _not_ rude," Julien piped up from below.

Boothby looked down at him. "You're quite fierce for a little boy who has no business walking around in this area."

"We really had no intention of crossing your lawn," Picard assured him quickly.

"That's what they all say," Boothby shot back. "Maybe I should complain to Admiral Jenkins about this, but then, she won't listen to me - she's busy with her interstellar relations class. And she's way too nice to guests like you anyway."

Picard smiled slightly. "Jenkins, hmm? Thanks, Boothby."

"What for?" the old man huffed and then turned around and walked away, muttering to himself.

"He's not very nice," Julien remarked.

"It only _seems_ that way," Picard said absent-mindedly and then took Julien's hand. "Come on, let's go and find Admiral Jenkins."

 


	2. Chapter 2

Picard slowly walked into the living room, took off his hat and then slumped onto the couch, breathing heavily. Julien's and his frequent trips to San Francisco were more than just exhausting for him, and yet he could not find it within his heart to deny his grandson any of his Starfleet-related wishes. He had taken him to the fleet museum, to Starfleet Headquarters, to the Academy, and quite a few less well-known places - basically anywhere no one had never taken him when he had been young... and where _he_ had never been able to take René.

 _René_.

Picard leaned back, closed his eyes and allowed for the old pain to wash over him. It was more present than ever now that he was old - something that René would never be, and -

"Getting sentimental again, mon captaine?"

Picard opened his eyes. "Q...!"

"Your mind really gets insufferably dark when you're having these dreadful thoughts," the entity said and sat down next to Picard on the couch. "Does this always happen when humans get old?"

"We reflect on our lives," Picard replied calmly - if there was one thing he had learned in the past three decades, it was to be a little less... jumpy when Q appeared.

"I wouldn't call this 'reflecting on one's life', I'd call it 'sinking into some kind of depression'," Q said. "It goes _too_ well with those other dark thoughts you're having these days. The ones concerning your much younger husband, I mean."

Picard glared at him. "My thoughts are none of your business."

"' _None of your business_ '," Q mocked. "Are you seriously suggesting that I should just sit here and do nothing while you torture yourself with images of your own grave and Alex standing in front of it, crying his eyes out?"

"Q -"

"It's what you're thinking, isn't it?" Q pressed. "You'll die and he'll remain behind, mourning your death for years, if not decades."

"Would you _stop_ it, please?"

"But it's tearing you apart!" Q protested. "And yet... since you've never spoken to Alex about this, how do you know that this is how he'd feel? Maybe he'd be happy that he was able to live with you for so many years...?"

"I do _not_ care to discuss this with you," Picard huffed and slowly got up from the couch.

Q rolled his eyes. "Now that you're old you're even more stubborn than you used to be."

Picard harrumphed and waved his hand in a dismissive gesture.

"You won't get rid of me that easily this time - I'm actually here to _help_ you."

Picard froze in horror. "Oh no, _please_ don't."

"You wound me, Jean-Luc, you really do - but then, I'm used to that by now," Q smirked, raised his hand, snapped his fingers, and Picard suddenly found himself in a place where he had never thought he'd ever be again:

He was standing on the bridge of a starship.


	3. Chapter 3

"Q, what is going on?" Picard asked, looked around on the rather futuristic bridge - and then froze when his gaze fell on the middle-aged man in the captain's chair. He was certain he had never seen him before and yet he seemed... familiar somehow.

"Helm, prepare for evasive maneuvers, we don't want for that anomaly to hit us like that again. Shields, Navek?"

A rather tall Cardassian at what was most likely the tactical station looked up. "Shields at maximum, sir."

"Good. How's the warp core, Mica?"

A woman at the engineering station glanced at the console display in front of her. "Force fields activated and all within normal parameters, captain."

"Alright then - take us in, Gordon."

The young officer at the helm nodded while his fingers moved over the console. "Aye, sir."

Picard looked back at the woman.

What had the captain called her? Mica?

Mica... LaForge?

Picard's gaze went back to the man in the captain's chair - and then it dawned on him just _why_ he seemed familiar.

" _Julien_...?!"

The captain did not answer him, however - he simply continued to study the display on the armrest of his chair.

"He can't see or hear you; I'm not _that_ irresponsible," Q suddenly said from right behind him and Picard almost shivered when he felt the entity's breath on his neck.

"Q, what... what is this?"

"It's what you would call the future," Q replied without moving even an inch.

"You mean all this is real?"

"Jean-Luc, please - we're way beyond the whole 'I drop you in illusions and watch you struggle' concept, don't you think?"

Picard looked back at his grandson in the captain's chair, who was now eyeing a rainbow-colored nebula on the viewscreen.

Another Picard in command of -

He whirled around. "Q, what ship is this?"

"Even _you_ should grasp a certain universal constant here, mon capitaine."

"You mean it's an Enterprise?"

"Of course."

Picard looked at the viewscreen. "When was she built?"

Q rolled his eyes. "How typical... I should have known that you'd be more interested in the ship than in what I'm trying to make clear to you."

Picard frowned. "What _are_ you trying to make clear to me?"

"All in good time. We have a few more places to visit." Q raised his hand, snapped his fingers and, before he could even open his mouth to protest, Picard's surroundings had changed once more.


	4. Chapter 4

Sunlight shone down on Picard, who was standing right in front of his house in LaBarre. It looked the same as it always had, and yet also different somehow.

Suddenly the front door opened and a little girl came running out, followed by a middle-aged woman.

"Jeanne, wait!" she called. "You can't just run out of the house like that!"

The little girl stopped running and giggled when the woman gently picked her up.

"Was she running again?" Another woman appeared in the doorway. "The famous Picard running genes, huh?"

"Which she got from _you_ , Yvette, not me," the first woman smiled and looked at the girl in her arms. "Jeanne, I promise you can go out and run - later. We wanted to bake a cake together today, remember?"

Jeanne put her right index finger in her mouth and then nodded thoughtfully.

"She's gonna make one hell of a mess in the kitchen again, you know that?" the woman called Yvette said.

"Not as much of a mess as I am capable of making - you know how rotten I still am at cooking real food."

Yvette laughed and stepped aside in order to let the woman and the girl pass through the door before she reached out and closed it behind them.

Picard looked at Q, who was standing next to him. "Who are they?"

"Didn't you recognize your own granddaughter?"

"I don't have a granddaughter."

"Not _yet_."

"What?"

"Never mind," Q said. "It's not what you're meant to focus on."

Picard put his hands on his hips. "Then what _is_ it I'm meant to be focusing on? You take me with you against my will, throw me into what you call the future and expect me to -"

Q raised his hand, snapped his fingers and Picard suddenly found himself standing in the house's living room.

"Q! Stop this!"

The entity - who had materialized in the corner of the room and not right next to or behind Picard for a change - waved his hand. "Don't waste time by getting upset, mon capitaine. Just look around, I promise there's a big hint in here."

Picard glared at Q but then looked around until his gaze fell on a nearby cabinet that was still standing where it had always been standing. It was the family portrait cabinet - his father had had the idea of putting up old-fashioned pictures of members of the Picard family, and whoever had lived in the house since then had continued the tradition.

Now, however, the cabinet had quite a few more pictures on it that Picard had never seen before. He walked up to it to have a closer look and focused on two pictures that seemed have been added fairly recently - one of them showed Julien in his Starfleet uniform behind his desk in what was most likely his ready room, the other showed the two women he had just seen, along with the little girl.

He turned around to face Q. "Are these pictures the hint you were talking about?"

"Yes."

"What is it that I'm supposed to gather from them?"

"Well, you know what humans say: A picture is worth a thousand words."

Picard looked back at the pictures - and then he realized that something, or rather, some _one_ was missing. "Where's Alexander?"

"We'll get to that - and soon - but, for now, this is _not_ about your husband."

"Then it's about my grandchildren?"

"You're getting there."

Picard felt another rush of anger. "Q, if there is a point to all this -"

"They _are_ the point."

"What about them?" Picard scoffed. "Julien is a starship captain and my granddaughter who hasn't even been born yet appears to be running the vineyard with her wife and daughter. There is nothing to conclude here other than the fact that they seem to be happy with their lives, and -"

Q smiled broadly. "That's exactly what you were supposed to realize - that they're happy and that the Picard family line goes on."

"What about Alexander?" Picard pressed.

Q sighed. "You won't stop asking about him, will you?"

"No, I won't. Not until I get a satisfying answer, that is."

Q shook his head - and then raised his hand and snapped his fingers again, taking Picard with him once more.

 


	5. Chapter 5

Picard opened his eyes and gasped audibly when the heat of what was undeniably the planet Vulcan hit him like a sledgehammer. Q and he were standing in a small backyard of a large house that Picard had never seen before - and they weren't alone: In front of them stood a human couple, looking down at two small white stones on the ground.

Picard took a closer look and then froze in shock when he recognized the bearded man and the gray-haired woman beside him.

"I wish they were here," Laurent said.

"Me too," Karen agreed.

"I never really had the chance to thank them for everything," Laurent continued. "They were always there for me when I needed them, they loved and supported me, even when I didn't deserve it - like when I rushed into our house one day after a Wolf 359 class in school and accused Papa Jean-Luc of being a mass murderer. It hurt both of them _so_ much."

Karen slowly put her hand on her husband's shoulder. "Please Laurent, stop torturing yourself."

Laurent sighed. "I just would like to have _one_ more chance to tell them how much I love them."

"You might still get that chance, who knows?"

"I wish," Laurent said softly, his voice trembling.

Picard reached out his hand in order to touch his son, but Q gently pulled him back. "Don't."

"Q, I _have_ to talk him..."

The entity looked at his favorite human, his face filled with regret. "I can't _let_ you, Jean-Luc. As much as I hate to admit it, I'm bound by rules as well, and this is as far as I'm allowed to let things go."

"Come on Laurent," Karen suddenly said. "Let's go back inside."

Laurent sighed again but then followed his wife without saying another word.

Picard watched them leave and then turned around and looked at Q. "What they were saying sounded like as if there's a possiblity that Alexander and I might return in some way."

"You noticed."

"Yes." Picard glanced at the stones. "These aren't grave stones, are they?"

"No, they're not. But that's not what you're supposed to realize."

Picard returned Q's intense gaze. "Then what?"

"Think. Again, all I can say is that the answer is right in front of you."

Picard turned around and looked down at the stones.

Stones...

Two stones...

Two...

TWO!

Picard froze. " _Two_ of them."

"Hmm?"

"There. _Two_ stones, and they seem to have been put there at the same time. I didn't die before Alexander - _that's_ why he was missing from all those family pictures!"

Q smiled slightly. "Now that took you long enough."

"But we also don't seem to be dead and yet we're gone..." Picard whirled around. "What the hell happened to us, Q?"

"I already told you, I can't let things go _too_ far. The Continuum is not happy about me revealing any of this to you already, and since I'm quite aware of their more severe punishment methods I honestly don't want to anger them further."

"Then why _did_ you show me all this?"

"Because I felt the need to help you realize that things aren't as hopeless as you think they are," Q said. "You see, Alex and you are what we call a universal constant: You belong together, and the universe has a way of making sure you _stay_ together."

"I don't understand."

"You're not supposed to, not yet - but you will, and I promise it won't be an uncomfortable experience." Q briefly put his hand on Picard's shoulder. "For now, all I wanted was to make you stop torturing yourself over something that will never happen."

Picard sighed and then glanced back at the house. "I have another question."

"Again, if this is about how you and Alex -"

"No, it's not - I understand that the Q Continuum has its own rather wild interpretation of the Prime Directive. My question is of a different nature."

"Alright, then. Ask."

"Q... you created Laurent, and without him, none of this would be happening because neither he nor my grandchildren would be here. I know humans are insignificant to you, but this still must shake up the universal timeline in _some_ way. I mean in essence all these things are happening because of _your_ interference. Doesn't this bother the Continuum by now?"

"You're thinking in far too linear terms," Q replied. "The Q are omnipotent; we knew these things would happen and that they would slightly alter one of the major timelines. I told you back then that I had to go through quite a few lengths to get the Continuum to agree to Laurent's creation - that was because we had to make sure the changes and their implications would go with the time currents of the universe, not against them."

"What if they had turned out to be disruptive?"

"We'd have known in advance and I would have had to come up with another wedding gift for you."

"I shudder to think what this might have been."

"I could show it to you if you want."

Picard quickly raised his hands. "No, please, don't. There's no need."

"Pity." Q smiled at him. "So, tell me... do you feel better now that you know what you know about the future?"

"Yes, I do." Picard eyed Q suspiciously. "What concerns me somewhat is the fact that I have the distinct feeling that _you_ are behind this entire 'Alexander and I are no longer here and yet apparently also not dead' idea."

Q put his hand on his chest. " _Moi..._?"

"Q..."

"Have I _ever_ done anything to harm you?"

"You mean like putting me on trial for the crimes of humanity? _Twice_?"

"I mean _really_ harm you."

"By killing 18 people of my crew, for example?"

Q rolled his eyes. "Are you _still_ not over that? It was decades ago and you - _and_ your arrogant crew - needed that Borg lesson to prepare you for what was about to come. I didn't do that to harm you, I did it to _help_ you!"

"Alright, alright." Picard sighed. "I _will_ admit that, in your own way, you _are_ capable of showing your benevolent side."

"Then just think of all this as another occasion of that - under one condition."

"What condition?"

The look on Q's face became serious. "You mustn't reveal any of the things I just showed you. Not even to Alex."

"I am _very_ well aware of the Temporal Prime Directive, thank you."

"That is a Starfleet rule."

"In case you forgot, I _do_ still carry the rank of captain."

Q looked at him once more and then smiled. "How could I ever forget that, mon capitaine?"

He raised his hand and before Picard could say anything he found himself back on the couch in his living room.

He looked around. "Q?"

No answer - and Picard somehow knew that the entity was gone, at least for now.

In that moment the front door opened and Alex walked in. "Oh, hey - you're here already! How was the trip to San Francisco?"

"A little exhausting but also quite... enlightening." Picard stood up from the couch, walked up to Alex as fast as he could and briefly put his hands on his bearded cheeks. "I'm so glad you're here, Alexander."

"I always come back from the bar at this time on Mondays - you know that." Alex frowned. "Is something wrong, Jean-Luc?"

Picard smiled and put his arms around his confused husband. "No. Everything is fine."


End file.
